 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Back
|
Screeners spot deadly weapons
By ADRIENNE P. SAMUELS Here's a friendly frequent flier reminder: Please, leave the barbed wire necklace at home. It simply won't make it through airport security checkpoints. Neither will the Inspector Gadget-wannabe weapons "voluntarily" collected at airports across the nation, including at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International. The crafty doodads are as intriguing and devious as they are deadly, and they range from credit cards housing teeny knives to fountain pens whose ends pop open to reveal a plethora of cutting aids.
All this stuff is safely removed from potential passengers, but there still are lingering issues. How, for example, do steak knives find their way into mom's purse just before getting on the airplane? Federal security director Frank Capello, with the newly formed Transportation Security Administration, has no idea. But he does know this: "The most unusual things you could imagine could be found at an airport." Several objects per day may find their way into the "amnesty basket" at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport, said Capello, also in charge of the Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport. (Tampa International Airport has a separate security director.) This totals 1,315 prohibited items surrendered to local security from Feb. 17 to July 30 this year. Nationally, more than 3-million questionable objects have been confiscated from passengers in the same time period. Among them were 783,000 knives, 9,000 clublike objects, 31,000 box cutters and 813 guns. The St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport averages two confiscated guns a year, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Deputy federal security director Pete Garcia has seen a little bit of everything as well. "I've seen larger knives," Garcia said while showing how a surrendered golden lame pen is disguised as a slender pepper spray canister. "I've seen necklaces that are pendants that come out to be knives." Garcia speculates that some deadly jewelry falls into the survivalist category. Then there's the other stuff, like the household key that transforms into a jagged-edged knife. The airport's 99 screeners know what to look for because they study survivalist catalogs and intelligence reports from local and federal agencies, the directors said. The surrendered items are placed in plastic bins and held for a sheriff's deputy who picks them up every few weeks. That deputy brings the bin back to the Sheriff's Office and combines it with other objects to take to an incinerator in Baldwin. Whether from the airport or from other police districts, certain weapons seem to be popular.
"We get boxes and boxes of knives," said Detective Cal Dennie, with the Sheriff's Office. Capello said that since Sept. 11, 2001, travelers are packing better and are more aware of what not to try to bring onto an airplane. He said people should try hard to use their common sense, but when in doubt, they can consult the Transportation Security Administration's Web site. People will not be arrested for having a steak knife in a purse, but they will be asked to either give it up, take it back to the car or dispose of it in some other way. Of course, Capello said, a person has every right to say no. Should that happen, the airport has every right to say that the person won't get on that plane. Folks should know that there are some slight changes in what is and isn't allowed, the TSA said. "Prohibited" items are absolutely not to be taken as carry-on items by a passenger. But some "dangerous goods" are okay. A prohibited item would be the credit card knife or ski poles. Dangerous goods would include 10 plastic Bic lighters, but not one. Ten lighters raises a red flag, security administrators said. Still, some passengers think the process needs streamlining. "It's amazing to me that lighters are allowed," said Patricia Tonyan, while waiting on herflight to Chicago Midway Airport. Others are dumbfounded when learning of the sorts of dangerous items "forgotten" in coat pockets and purses. "I can't believe people are trying to bring in these things into an airport," said Deborah Czubak of a Chicago suburb. "I've heard a lot of things, but a steak knife?" -- Adrienne Samuels can be reached at 445-4157 or samuels@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
Headlines From the Times local news desks |
